Abstract:

 Reply to Geng Sikou, a collection of important letters written by Li Zhi to Geng Dingxiang for ideological debate, was revised twice by Li Zhi. The first revision was made into one lengthy letter by combining the seven letters together and collected into his monograph Fen Shu (the 1stEdition). The second revision, after a deletion of one third of contents, was collected into the second edition of the Feng Shu. As the study of the first revision including the reasons behind it was published in the author's another article, here the reasons of revision for the second revision are explored. The second revision took place in the background when the strained relationship between Li and Geng relaxed. Therefore, the fundamental ideas in the first revision were still kept while the sixth letter which was the harshest one and criticized Geng's personal integrity and his family affairs was deleted. The second revision reflects Li's tendency of adhering to his own ideas and his willingness to reconciliate with Geng. Asother articles in Fen Shu also witnessed complicated modifications, the study of the revision of the Reply to Geng Sikou can work as an important reference for the research of the revision of Fen Shu as a whole.

Key words: Li Zhi, Geng Dingxiang, Fen Shu, letter revisions, Reply to Geng Sikou